A friend wants to pay off my credit card and is asking for my online banking password. Should I let them?

You should NEVER share your online banking password with anyone, even if they are offering to do something nice for you, like pay off your credit card. (Ask yourself why they would want to do so. If it sounds too good to be true, it usually is.)

By giving someone else your log-in information, you’re authorizing another person to access the money in your account. This could allow scammers to deposit fraudulent funds into your account, or cause you to become a victim of identity theft. And unfortunately, because you authorized it by sharing your login information, you would be liable for the financial impacts.

In this credit card payoff scam, the scammer makes an electronic (ACH) payment to your credit card. That payment is often made with a stolen account number, which means it’s only a matter of time before the payment is returned as unauthorized. The scammer will ask you to do a cash advance and then wire them some money, or they may ask you to purchase gift cards or electronics. They’ll then request either a picture of the back of the gift card (so they can redeem it remotely) or ask for the gift cards or electronics to be mailed to a destination where they can be intercepted by the fraudster.

Once you’ve done this, they may continue to make “payments” to your card and ask you to send more funds. Because it can take up to 60 days for an ACH transaction to be returned by another financial institution, you could be scammed multiple times before the scammer’s payments are returned as fraudulent or unauthorized. By the time it’s discovered, you could be thousands of dollars over your credit limit and are responsible for paying back that balance. If you have given someone access to your RCU online banking account, call us at 1 (800) 479-7928 so we can help protect your information.